IBM is buying data infrastructure company Confluent for $11 billion in cash to strengthen its data and automation products as more and more companies move their technology operations to the cloud and deploy AI technology.
The tech giant said it would offer $31 for each Confluent share, about 50% more than where the small company’s shares closed on Friday before news of the deal.
Confluent provides a platform that helps enterprises manage streams of data in real-time, a use case that has exploded in demand as more companies develop and deploy AI products that require significant back-and-forth processing of data to make inferences.
IBM said Confluent will complement its existing data and automation products, as well as improve its existing offerings in AI, automation, data and consulting. The company expects EBITDA and free cash flow to increase in two years after the deal closes.
It’s the latest in a series of deals IBM has made in recent months as it tries to capitalize on the AI boom, although at $11 billion, Confluent would be the tech giant’s biggest purchase in years following its acquisition. HashiCorp In 2024.
IBM in October Signed an agreement with AI lab Anthropique Deploying cloud large language models in some of their products; it is participation to develop a new computing architecture with AMD that combines quantum systems with AI-specialized chips; and this acquired data analytics startup Seek AI in June.
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